And when, an hour later, we ourselves reached
Gerbeviller, the terror which had inspired that frenzied flight became,
as we listened to Soeur Julie, a tangible presence haunting the
ruined town.
Gerbeviller and Soeur Julie are great names in France to-day.
Gerbeviller, with Nomeny, Badonviller, and Sermaize, stand in France for
what is most famous in German infamy; Soeur Julie, the "chere soeur" of
so many narratives, for that form of courage and whole-hearted devotion
which is specially dear to the French, because it has in it a touch of
_panache_, of audacity! It is not too meek; it gets its own back when it
can, and likes to punish the sinner as well as to forgive him. Sister
Julie of the Order of St. Charles of Nancy, Madame Rigard, in civil
parlance, had been for years when the war broke out the head of a modest
cottage hospital in the small country town of Gerbeviller. The town was
prosperous and pretty; its gardens ran down to the Mortagne flowing at
its feet, and it owned a country house in a park, full of treasures new
and old--tapestries, pictures, books--as Lorraine likes to have such
things about her.
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